Case Number 24363

FULL METAL JACKET (BLU-RAY) 25TH ANNIVERSARY DIGIBOOK

The Charge

Vietnam can kill me, but it can't make me care.

Opening Statement

"Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart that kills."

Facts of the Case

Stanley Kubrick's much-lauded portrait of the Vietnam war follows the long,
difficult journey of Pvt. J.T. "Joker" Davis (Matthew Modine, The Dark Knight
Rises). We begin with Joker's time in basic training, where he witnesses a
merciless drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermey, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The
Beginning) relentlessly hounding the overweight, underperforming Pvt.
Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio, Men in Black). Later,
Joker finds himself working as a military journalist, providing war
correspondence for Stars and Stripes. He's sent on a dangerous mission to
Phu Bai, where it's expected that Joker will be able to witness some combat
up-close. During his time there, he witnesses some terrible sights and works
alongside such colorful figures as Eightball (Dorian Harewood, Against All
Odds), Animal (Adam Baldwin, Firefly), Cowboy (Arliss Howard, The
Lost World: Jurassic Park), Touchdown (Ed O'Ross, Six Feet Under) and
Rafter Man (Kevyn Major Howard, The A-Team).

The Evidence

One of these days, I'm going to try starting Full Metal Jacket from
the 45-minute mark and see how plays as a 72-minute feature film. Much of what
the film has to offer during its extended second half is thoughtful and
technically impressive material, but it never really makes much of an impact on
me in the wake of the film's stunning opening section. It's the rare movie that
makes the mistake of setting the bar entirely too high for itself.

The opening 45 minutes of Full Metal Jacket essentially form a
brilliant, atypically lengthy short film. It's fueled by a relentless
performance from R. Lee Ermey, who delivers a turn so iconic that it would
firmly define the rest of his career. Ermey's ferocious drill sergeant offers a
tidal wave of profane insults, sexually-charged metaphors and negative
reinforcement in mesmerizing fashion; it's a double-edged performance that is
simultaneously funny and frightening. He's every movie drill sergeant distilled
into a single human being; a man so good at his job that he's as celebrated as
he is condemned by movie buffs (I don't know how many people I've encountered
who have suggested that the military needs more leaders like Ermey's
character).

Ermey's blustery performance is given sad counterpoint in the form of
Vincent D'Onofrio's turn as the hapless as Private Gomer Pyle. Watching
D'Onofrio's slow-burn frustration and humiliation begin to build steam as Ermey
continues his torrent of verbal abuse is hypnotizing, and the final
confrontation between the two is a scene of terrifying power that very
explicitly harkens back to some of the darkest moments in A Clockwork
Orange and The Shining. It's a chilling climax, and attempting to
press forward with the rest of Full Metal Jacket afterwards is akin to
watching the first hour of No Country for Old Men and then switching to
the second hour of U.S. Marshals. The latter is okay on its own terms,
but by no means a satisfying follow-up to the former.

If the first part Full Metal Jacket seems to draw from a host of
movie drill sergeant scenes it eventually transcends, the second part seems
drawn in a host of Vietnam movie scenes it doesn't distinguish itself from.
Watching Kubrick's gritty drama play out, we're reminded of how similarly -- and
honestly, how much more effectively -- this material was handled in films like
Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter. Even the bolder strokes of the
film's second half (using playful pop tunes of the era to underscore scenes of
carnage, for instance) feel pretty conventional, and Matthew Modine's
performance as Joker simply isn't strong enough keep us interested when the plot
starts tossing out clichés. Full Metal Jacket is a movie that has
some valuable things to say, but it says most of them long before the end
credits start rolling.

So what about this double-dip hi-def release? Full Metal Jacket (Blu-ray)
25th Anniversary Digibook presents the exact same transfer we received back
in 2007. Thankfully, that was a strong transfer to begin with, boasting
exceptional depth and clarity, so the folks at Warner Bros. can't really be
accused of missing a big opportunity. The lossless PCM 5.1 Surround track is
also precisely the same, and yes, it was also quite impressive from the start.
Those who own the initial release (and honestly, most fans of the movie probably
do, given that it's been available at a rather low price for some time now) will
only find new stuff in the supplemental department. Honestly, the best special
features are the ones ported over from the earlier release: the audio commentary
featuring Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and screenwriter Jay
Cocks and half-hour featurette entitled "Between Good and Evil," which details
the making of the film. The second disc included with this set houses a new
hour-long documentary entitled "Stanley Kubrick's Boxes," in which director Joe
Ronson digs through a bunch of boxes at the Kubrick estate and talks about it.
Some interesting stuff here (it reminded me a bit of the nifty
memorabilia-themed featurettes included on the Blu-ray releases of Sergio
Leone's spaghetti western flicks), but it's hardly essential and only loosely
related to Full Metal Jacket. Other than that, you just get the digibook
packaging with the glossy, full-color pages featuring bios, behind-the-scenes
info and photos.

Closing Statement

The first 45 minutes of Full Metal Jacket are more than enough to
justify adding the film to your personal collection, but it's a shame that the
movie doesn't know how to follow the strength of its powerful opening tale. The
new Blu-ray digibook is an attractive-looking package, but doesn't offer enough
new material of substance to warrant an upgrade from the previous release.